Writing

ELT Playbook 1 and ELT Playbook Teacher Training

This is the first in a series of books designed to help teachers learn to reflect through a series of guided tasks, with the aim of providing support if you don’t have any where you work, or supplementing it if you do.

ELT Playbook 1 is aimed at new teachers and was self-published in February 2018, edited by Penny Hands (thanks Penny!). Each of the tasks focuses on an area which I believe is particularly challenging for teachers new to the profession, and provides a simple task, a series of reflection questions, and four possible ways to summarise your reflection.

ELT Playbook Teacher Training contains 30 tasks for experienced and new teacher trainers covering areas like the differences between teaching and training, conducting observations, and planning training sessions/workshops/conference presentations. It follows the same format as ELT Playbook 1.

There is also the chance to participate in the #ELTPlaybook online community to get feedback on your reflections and earn badges which you can display on your CV, blog or social media as evidence of continued professional development.

You can find out how to buy the books (available as both paperbacks and ebooks) and see sample tasks on the ELT Playbook blog.

Richer Speaking

In April 2016 I published my first ebook, with the help of Lindsay Clandfield and Luke Meddings at the round and editor Karen White.

It’s a book of twelve techniques you can use to adapt speaking activities from coursebooks and activity books, and is part of a mini-series from the round of books which cost no more than 1USD. They’re all on the round’s resources page, and have the same type of cover as mine.

For publishers

In 2015-2016, I wrote the writing spreads for the B2, C1 and C2 workbooks of the National Geographic Cengage Learning Keynoteseries of coursebooks, which is based around TED talks. I also wrote Unit 10 of the B2 workbook.

In the same year, I also contributed materials to the English FileBest Extra competition, which are available via the Oxford Teachers Club. It requires you to log in, but it’s free.

In 2014, Richmond ELT asked me to put together six C1 level listening worksheets for their Skills Boost series. Again, a login is required. It’s free, but takes a few days to activate.

Blogging

In addition to this blog and ELT Playbook, I have two other blogs (though I don’t post there very often nowadays!):

Independent English
Aimed at students, designed to provide step-by-step guides to things they can do to practise their English outside class. Two of my most popular posts on the blog are based on Quizlet and using podcasts.

(Almost) Infinite ELT Ideas
I share prompts that could be used by teachers as the basis for a class. The idea behind the blog is that readers share their ideas for how to use the prompts, and I then tag the posts based on the ideas that have been generated. Here is an example of a post that generated a lot of ideas, based on post-it notes.

Getting Started for the IATEFL MaWSIG (Materials Writing Special Interest Group)
About the questions I’ve found it useful to ask a new materials writer (also included in the MaWSIG 2015 ebook, available to members)

IH Journal

International House publishes a journal twice a year. I originally had a column called ‘Developing Teachers‘ in issues 32-38, where I shared ideas for teachers to develop professionally. From issue 39, I started to write about online resources teachers can benefit from.

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Comments on: "Writing" (2)

Hi Sandy, I’m Italian and teach English. I’ve just found myself here https://sandymillin.wordpress.com/2011/05/15/observe-hypothesize-experiment/ during some research on the actual applicability of the OHE paradigm. Have you come up with something after that post? I know it’s 3 years ago, but I haven’t seen much new stuff around since then. I’m writing on PPP vs OHE in my final dissertation for a teacher training course I’m following. Thanks for your attention. Alberto

Hi Alberto,
I never did, I’m afraid. Doesn’t seem to come up much anywhere. If you’re on facebook, it might be worth asking on the ‘Teaching English – British Council’ facebook page to see if anyone else has any more information about it. Sorry I can’t be of more help!
Sandy

My (e)books

30 tasks for new teachers to help them learn to reflect on their teaching, as well as build up an online community. Also great as a refresher for experienced teachers, or as session prompts for trainers and managers. The ebook is just £5/€5.50 - less than the price of a cinema ticket! Also available as a paperback.
What are you waiting for? Get your copy today!

30 tasks for teacher trainers to help them learn to reflect on their teaching, as well as build up an online community.

A collection of techniques for adapting speaking activities. Click the image to read more and to find links to purchase it for less than 1 USD a copy! (Published by the round)

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#eltpics

#eltpics is a collection of photos, based on a weekly theme, taken by ELT teachers, trainers and writers from around the world.
These are, in turn, available free to others in the field of ELT under a CC license to use in their classroom and on their non-commercial materials.
Anyone interested in joining in can tweet an image with the hashtag #eltpics, and it will then be added to the #eltpics Flickr group.
For a more detailed explanation of how to join in, please see this post.
For ideas on how to use some of the photos, visit the eltpics blog.
It was nominated for an ELTons award in 2013.
You can see the last 10 photos uploaded to the site below:

Quizlet

IATEFL Manchester 2015

Amazon Affiliates (EU Associates)

Sandy Millin is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk.